1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of updating firmware thereof and relates to a control method and a storage medium therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information processing apparatus such as an image forming apparatus is required to update firmware thereof for example when the version of the firmware is upgraded or when a failure occurs in the apparatus. Conventionally, the firmware is updated manually by a serviceman visiting a customer, and this increases costs for firmware update.
Thus, there has been developed a technique for updating firmware by storing firmware transmitted via the Internet into a rewritable storage device such as a flash memory.
More specifically, a system has been developed in which firmware update is reserved by a monitoring system that remotely monitors the operation state of an image forming apparatus, or in which a server is periodically accessed by an image forming apparatus to check whether or not the latest version of firmware is available. For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-11944 discloses a technique in which an image forming apparatus per se communicates via the Internet with a server that holds firmware, and downloads a firmware program from the server. With this technique, it is possible to distribute firmware during night time zone where the image forming apparatus is not in use by a user.
However, power supply to the image forming apparatus is generally turned off during the time zone where the image forming apparatus is not in use, and hence the image forming apparatus cannot communicate with the server and cannot download firmware therefrom. On the other hand, if power supply to the image forming apparatus is kept on during the time zone where the apparatus is not in use, the resultant power consumption becomes large.
In a case where the administrator wishes to prohibit the image forming apparatus to perform network printing and FAX reception during the night time zone, power supply to the apparatus is generally disconnected. To enable the image forming apparatus to download the firmware during the night time zone, power supply to the apparatus cannot be disconnected, which poses a problem.